November 14, 2018 Wednesday, 32nd Week in Ordinary Time St. Martin of Tours1st Reading: Tit 3:1–7 Gospel: Lk 17:11–19
On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along the border between Samaria and Galilee, and as he entered a village, ten lepers came to meet him. Keeping their distance, they called to him, “Jesus,Master, have pity on us!” Then Jesus said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Now, as they went their way, they found they were cured. One of them, as soon as he saw he was cleansed,turned back praising God in a loud voice, and throwing himself on his face before Jesus, he gave him thanks. This man was a Samaritan.Then Jesus said, “Were not all ten healed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God but this alien?” And Jesus said to him, “Stand up and go your way; your faith has saved you.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
“Gratitude is the memory of the heart”, wrote Jean Baptiste Massieu in the “Letter to Abbe Sicard”. Memory is generally associated with intellection while the heart with feelings and sensation. In saying that memory is the function of the heart, Abbe Sicard comes close to the Old Anglo Saxon concept of thinking (an act of the intellect) as the other side of thanking (an act normally ascribed to the heart).To thank is to think because one cannot thank if he does not think and reflect on the good things the donor has done to him. Under this close association of think and thank, the deeper one’s reflection about the good received, the more intense the gratitude he feels towards that benefactor. Today’s Gospel reading best illustrates this concept. The Jews frowned upon the Samaritans as outside the embrace of God’s graciousness for being unclean. It’s baffling how they arrived at a connection between spiritual uncleanness and physical and even mechanical acts like touching a leper. Under this mentality, the lone Samaritan in the group of ten lepers in today’s Gospel reading was twice unclean. Reflecting on his social status, he was so overwhelmed by what Jesus did to him.
But not all who think end up thanking. Proud people think a lot but they thank very little. They are so self-centered that they think others are duty bound to do good to them. The nine other lepers probably thought they deserved the healing because they were Jews and therefore favored by God. The Samaritan leper, on the other hand, was aware of his unworthiness and so felt so much gratitude. “Gratitude”, wrote Jean Baptiste Massieu, “is the memory of the heart”. This memory is sharpest when the heart is humble. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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